This invention relates to a pneumatic tire for a passenger car which has an improved high speed durability without deteriorating its uniformity (UF) and moreover an improved producibility.
With recent development in highway networks and in higher car performance, requirements for higher tire performance and diversification are ever growing. For example, HR tires capable of higher running than SR tires and VR tires capable of higher running than the HR tires have been required.
It has been a usual practice to dispose a belt cover layer on a belt layer in order to improve high speed performance of tires. In conventional tires provided with such a belt cover layer, however, a so-called "post-cure inflation (PCI)" step has been necessary. This step comprises charging a tire with air to a pressure higher than a normal internal pressure after it is taken out of a mold in a vulcanization step and discharging the air after the tire temperature has dropped to a sufficiently low level in order to control the size of the tire. For this reason, producibility of the tire has been extremely low.